New Hand-Held Adventure Lets Players Control Up to 10 Kirbys at the Same Time

REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 19, 2011 - If a group of lions is called a pride, and a group of dolphins is called a pod, what do you call a multitude of pink Kirby™ characters who swarm together for an action-packed portable adventure? The answer is Kirby™ Mass Attack, launching today for the Nintendo DS™ family of hand-held systems. This new installment in the fan-favorite Kirby franchise challenges players to control as many as 10 Kirbys at the same time as they smash through obstacles, defeat enemies and access new areas while adventuring through a series of colorful side-scrolling worlds.

In the Kirby Mass Attack game, the evil Necrodeus uses his magic staff to split the heroic Kirby into 10 copies of himself. Players must help Kirby return to his original form and save planet Popstar from darkness by guiding him on a quest through worlds fraught with enemies and obstacles. Players start with one Kirby and add more Kirbys to their crew by gobbling up fruit. With unique touch-screen controls, players can then use the stylus to flick Kirbys to break through obstacles, tap on enemy attackers to swarm them with Kirbys or gather Kirbys together and draw a line to carefully maneuver them in a mass. If Kirbys are knocked out, players can simply gulp down more fruit to rebuild their numbers.

"With 10 Kirbys to control, players can expect 10 times the fun," said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "As consumers start thinking about games for friends and family members to enjoy this holiday season, Kirby Mass Attack is another great experience available only on Nintendo systems."

In some stages, players must think strategically about the number of Kirbys in their mass because certain challenges can only be solved if they have enough Kirbys. As they build their crew of Kirbys and collect medals to progress through the game, players can also uncover secret areas and unlock a variety of mini-games, each with its own distinctive challenges.

To celebrate the launch of Kirby Mass Attack, Nintendo recently sent a fleet of special Kirby Snack Attack Trucks to select locations in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area and - fittingly - the Upper Kirby neighborhood of Houston. In addition to sampling frozen fruit treats and savoring the spectacle of the customized Kirby Snack Attack Trucks, consumers in each area were able to enjoy hands-on demos of Kirby Mass Attack. The truck tour concluded with a memorable visit to the GameStop store in Upper Kirby on Sept. 17-18.

About Nintendo:
The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™ home console, Nintendo 3DS™ and Nintendo DS™ family of portable systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 3.7 billion video games and more than 600 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi XL™, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™ and Nintendo GameCube™ systems. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, please visit the company's website at http://www.nintendo.com.